Is Spain facing the end of democracy, a condition that was restored less than half a century ago?
It isn’t just foreigners who are constantly asking this worrisome question. We Spaniards are asking it ourselves as 2023 comes to a close.
The concern stems from elections held this year and the government it produced. That it is called a “Frankenstein coalition” gives a sense of why many of us worry.
In November, Pedro Sanchez was again sworn in as prime minister—or “president of the government” as is the custom in Spain. His socialist party—the Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol (PSOE)—had not won the elections, but the party that had won the most votes, the conservative Partido Popular, had not been able to put together a parliamentary majority. The PSOE was able to.
That wasn’t the problem. The problem lies in what type of coalition Sanchez put…
